Has Law School Lost Its Cool?

It seems that being a lawyer isn’t as chic as it once used to be. In fact, the latest numbers released by the Law School Admission Council suggest the profession may be just downright losing its flavor.

Consider this. This time a year ago, the total number of law school applicants recorded had reached 43,156. The latest numbers released by the Law School Admission Council, however, are somewhat surprising.

As of March 13, just over 41,136 people have applied to go to an accredited U.S. law school this fall, according to LSAC, which administers the LSAT entrance exam. In comparison to 2014, applications are down 6.7%.

Going back further in time, the drop-off is much steeper. By this time in 2010, more than 77,000 people had applied to law school. In 2004, a peak year, law schools had already collected applications from more than 90,000 people, more than double the size of this year’s pool.

Applicants usually have until March 1 to apply for regular admission, but it takes longer for the data to get reported to LSAC and to be posted online. In 2014, LSAC’s mid-March numbers ended up representing about 80% of the final tally for that year’s cycle.